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World education rankings: which

country does best at reading, maths and
science?
The OECD's comprehensive world education ranking report, PISA,
is out. Find out how each country compares
Get the data
Jessica Shepherd
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 7 December 2010 15.43 GMT
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World education rankings show how countries do atreading, maths and science. A pupil in a science lesson.
Photograph: David Sillitoe/Guardian
The world education rankings from the OECD are out. The UK is slipping down in
maths, reading and science, and has been overtaken by Poland and Norway, this major
study of 65 countries reveals today.
Around 470,000 15-year-olds across the world sat a numeracy, literacy and science test
last year, the results of which inform the latest Pisa study by the Paris-based
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
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PISA rankings within
OECD. Illustration: Paul Scruton for the Guardian
The Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) is highly respected across
the globe, and enables politicians and policy-makers to assess how different country's
education systems compare.
It shows the UK's reputation as one of the world's best for education is at risk, and has
tumbled several places since 2006.
The UK is ranked 25th for reading, 28th for maths and 16th for science. In 2006, when
57 countries were included in the study, it was placed 17th, 24th and 14th respectively.
Poland has stretched ahead of the UK in maths, while Norway is now ranked higher in
reading and maths.
Andreas Shleicher, head of the Pisa programme, said the picture for the UK was
"stagnant at best". "Many other countries have seen quite significant improvement," he
added.
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Data summary
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World education ranking
Click heading to sort
Country Name Reading score Maths score Science score
Green: above average
Blue: average
Red: below average
Source: OECD, PISA 2009 Database
Download this data
OECD average 493 496 501
Shanghai-China 556 600 575
Korea-South 539 546 538
Finland 536 541 554
Hong Kong-China 533 555 549
Singapore 526 562 542
Canada 524 527 529
New Zealand 521 519 532
J apan 520 529 539
Australia 515 514 527
Netherlands 508 526 522
Belgium 506 515 507
Norway 503 498 500
Estonia 501 512 528
Switzerland 501 534 517
Poland 500 495 508
Iceland 500 507 496
United States 500 487 502
Liechtenstein 499 536 520
Sweden 497 494 495
Germany 497 513 520
Ireland 496 487 508
France 496 497 498
Chinese Taipei 495 543 520
Denmark 495 503 499
United Kingdom 494 492 514
Hungary 494 490 503
Portugal 489 487 493
Macao-China 487 525 511
Italy 486 483 489
Latvia 484 482 494
Slovenia 483 501 512
Greece 483 466 470
Spain 481 483 488
Czech Republic 478 493 500
Slovak Republic 477 497 490
Croatia 476 460 486
Israel 474 447 455
Luxembourg 472 489 484
Austria 470 496 494
Lithuania 468 477 491
Turkey 464 445 454
United Arab Emirates 459 453 466
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Russian Federation 459 468 478
Chile 449 421 447
Serbia 442 442 443
Bulgaria 429 428 439
Uruguay 426 427 427
Mexico 425 419 416
Romania 424 427 428
Thailand 421 419 425
Trinidad and Tobago 416 414 410
Colombia 413 381 402
Brazil 412 386 405
Montenegro 408 403 401
J ordan 405 387 415
Tunisia 404 371 401
Indonesia 402 371 383
Argentina 398 388 401
Kazakhstan 390 405 400
Albania 385 377 391
Qatar 372 368 379
Panama 371 360 376
Peru 370 365 369
Azerbaijan 362 431 373
Kyrgyzstan 314 331 330
Country Name Reading score Maths score Science score
Green: above average
Blue: average
Red: below average
Source: OECD, PISA 2009 Database
Download this data
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